1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery container case that is used to pack a plurality of cylindrical batteries as a whole for the purpose of pack sale and is reusable by the customer side.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cylindrical batteries such as LR6 (size AA) are often on sale in the form of a pack having a predetermined number of them packed therein. In these days, with the kinds and numbers of battery-powered apparatuses increased, general customers who buy such batteries often buy them in bulk and in the form of the pack mentioned above because it is likely to be convenient to have a plurality of batteries in stock.
As the form of the pack, shrink packs and blister packs are widely used (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-110384). The shrink packs are packs having a predetermined number of batteries packed with a heat-shrinkable resin film, and when taking out a battery, the film is broken thereby opening the pack. The blister packs are packs wherein a mount such as a cardboard is stuck to a plastic thin board (blister) having recesses formed therein and batteries are contained in closed spaces formed by the mount and the recesses.
Those packs are fundamentally thrown away after opening them and taking out batteries, and cannot be used to re-contain batteries that have been taken out. That is, those are disposable packages that are not for re-use. If reused, their function, e.g., usability as a battery container will be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the packs in the above forms are appropriate to pack a relatively small number of, e.g. two or four, batteries as whole. It is not that a plurality of batteries cannot be packed as whole, but there is the problem that opening the pack to take out a first battery causes the containing function to be lost or greatly reduced for the remaining batteries.
Accordingly, where a plurality of batteries are packed as a whole, not the disposable packages but box-shaped cases made of a cardboard or a resin thin board are often used. If batteries are arranged and contained upright in the box-shaped case, they can be contained in plurality, efficiently and in an orderly manner. Even if opened, the pack keeps its function as a container case and hence is suitable to re-contain batteries that have been taken out.
Although being reusable as a container case even after opened, the box-shaped case has the following problems in terms of use as a container case for batteries. That is, the box-shaped case can contain a plurality of batteries in a group, but if used-up batteries are contained in the battery case, they will not be distinguishable from unused batteries. Hence, a trouble occurs when a new battery is needed due to a battery being dead.
In this case, by obeying the rule that used-up batteries taken out cannot be returned to the battery case, the above trouble can be avoided. However, it is strictly required from the viewpoint of environmental protection for the customer side to keep used-up batteries without losing them and bring to a predetermined collecting station when the quantity of them reaches a certain number. Accordingly, a battery case is newly needed to collect and manage used-up batteries. However, it is cost to customers to provide a battery case dedicated for collection.
A simple means to identify new batteries is to attach a seal, a so-called virgin seal, to each battery. However, with this method, the battery price is increased and also there is not a little possibility that a trouble due to the mistake of customers forgetting to take away the seal may occur. Hence, this method is hardly used for most of batteries that are in the market, especially, ones that are on sale on a pack-of-batteries basis, while being used for some of batteries that are on sale on a single battery basis.